Serena to pass Martina, Evert: Davenport

Darren Walton

Former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport believes all-conquering compatriot Serena Williams will surpass Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert to become the most successful American tennis player of all time.

Davenport suspects Williams will run out of time and fall short in her pursuit of Australian Margaret Smith Court's record of 24 singles majors, but says the 31-year-old will eclipse the 18 of Navratilova and Evert.

Williams, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champion, has 15 slams - one more than retired men's legend Pete Sampras - and is a hot favourite to claim a sweet 16th at Melbourne Park this week.

"I think she will win three this year and get alongside Martina and Chris," Davenport told AAP ahead of Williams' Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday against fellow American Sloane Stephens.

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"When all is said and done, I think she will end up with right around 20.

"So I guess she has about five more in her if I had to guess now.

"Age and injury will catch up with her at some stage; she'll be 32 this year."

John McEnroe is already on record as hailing Williams the greatest women's player in history, but Davenport believes Steffi Graf, who won 22 grand slam singles titles as well as the "Golden Slam" in 1988 - all four majors plus Olympic gold - shades her.

Davenport, though, says some of Graf's six majors won during Monica Seles' 10-slam absence from 1993 to 1995 require an asterix.

"Gosh, it's tough picking the greatest," said Davenport, the 2000 Australian Open champion.

"My mind always goes to to Steffi, but Steffi had a few years there when unfortunately Monica was out of the game after being stabbed.

"The level that she was competing against, for some of those slams, was a bit different because her biggest rival was taken out of the game at 18 or 19 years old.

"Monica lost a lot in those years she was out. Even though she won here (for a fourth time in 1996), she wasn't quite the same player.

"But Steffi was amazing to win all four slams at least four times.

"I still think Serena has a ways to go to get herself on even ground with Steffi."

Davenport believes Williams, with 40 wins from her past 41 matches, is a shoe-in to capture her sixth Open title on Saturday.

"I'd be surprised if she didn't," she said.

"Serena had that one scare in the first round where she fell and hurt her ankle; something like that has to happen in my mind for her not to win.

"She is incredibly focused - she seems more confident. She's not as dramatic as we've seen before - seven, eight years ago.

"She's all business. I think she realises there's an expiration date on her career and it's not next year, but the end is closer than it is to the beginning of her career.

"I think she now has a sense of urgency that she hasn't had before."

Victory over Stephens would catapult Williams into a semi-final against world No.1 and defending champion Victoria Azarenka or resurgent Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.